Campbell Live has won the war of the ratings against TVNZ for the first time since the show's inception.

According to figures from TV website Throng, TVNZ's offering, Seven Sharp, took yet another dive in viewership while John Campbell's stocks rose by more than 50,000.

The two shows compete in the 7pm time slot.

Seven Sharp, only in its second week, started off strong with 497,000 viewers aged five and over, for its premiere episode.

That figure has consistently dropped however, and last night reached a low of 296,700.

Campbell Live picked up an extra 55,900 viewers last night, to give it an average viewership of 352,600.

Not only is it the first time Campbell Live has come out on top in the ratings since the show began in 2005, it is the first time TV3 has ever been ahead of TVNZ in the 7pm time slot since the channel began in 1989.

News and current affairs director Mark Jennings said Campbell Live had put in the work and deserved to reap the rewards.

"For us, in-depth daily coverage of the stories and issues that matter to Kiwis is central to the future of current affairs.

"Viewers are clearly telling us this is what they want; substance and not once over lightly."

Head of news and current affairs at TVNZ, Ross Dagan, said it was always expected their new format would take some getting used to.

"We're asking people to make quite a big change in the way they view current affairs, and we expect it to take some time for that shift to happen - so day-by-day ratings might be of interest but not necessarily of significance.

"As we've said before we're in this for the long haul and our focus remains on fine tuning the show. We're very happy with the way it's developing."

An announcement on the return date of Marmite was aired on Campbell Live last night. It is not known whether that had an effect on last night's ratings.